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 Recent observations confirm that AltaVista submissions tend to start out with a low ranking after being submitted and then tend to improve on their own over time as the page "ages". Therefore, optimize the page carefully with the Page Critic and submit it. Once you verify that AltaVista indexed your page, monitor your rankings for improvement. Avoid re-submitting pages already in AltaVista as that may harm your ranking rather than help it.
AltaVista displays Sponsored/Featured Listings at the top of its search results which are derived from Goto.com. If you'd like to be positioned here, you will need to setup a Goto.com account and purchase top rankings for as little as 5 cents per click-through.
All major engines claim to prefer Web sites with high-quality content. In addition to improving your rankings, enhancing the quality of your Web site will also help convert more visitors to SALES. Don't fall into the trap of creating dozens of "cookie-cutter" pages that are devoid of valuable content or are lacking in aesthetics. See our article on creating high-quality pages to make your Web site the very best it can be.
AltaVista now requires manual submissions.
Improve your link popularity! Your ranking is influenced by the link "popularity" of your site. This is determined by how many OTHER Web sites link to your own. The more sites that you can get to link to you, the better!
Be sure you are targeting the right keywords! If you optimize for Keywords that nobody is searching for then all your efforts will be in vain.
AltaVista expanded it's rules on what it considers spamdexing during the first quarter of 2000. One noteable change is that you should avoid creating multiple duplicate pages or near-duplicate pages if there's a chance that AltaVista would find them. Create pages with good, and varied content that still adheres to the rules in the Page Critic advice.
It's thought that AltaVista is more likely to reindex your page after changes are made if you change the size of the file by 50 to 75 bytes (characters) since your last submission. You could do this by simply adding or subtracting spaces at the bottom of the page as needed. The logic is that the engine may skip pages that it thinks have not changed much.
It's believed that AltaVista may prefer larger sites with lots of pages. The thinking is that a site with more content will most likely be of greater value to their visitors. Therefore, make sure your site has plenty of content with links to that content from your home page. This content should reside on your web site, though, and not on other sites.
You can improve your score if you allow your doorway pages to be spidered by AltaVista rather than submitting them directly.
Consider creating pages with varying Keyword weights for AltaVista.
Obtaining a domain name with your Keyword in it may significantly affect your score on AltaVista. Including the Keyword in a sub-directory name or page name can also help, although not as much. Separate multiple words by dashes, underscores, or slashes in the case of sub-directories. Consider purchasing a secondary domain name for this purpose if ranking well on AltaVista is important to you.
Along with using your Keyword at the top of the page, you might consider using your Keyword at least once near the bottom of your page in the Body area. This can help convey an overall "theme" to the page and may improve your score. Click here to learn why. Only make this change if it doesn't conflict with the current recommended prominence suggestion.
Since plurals are not recognized as being synonymous by AltaVista, try to use the plural form of the Keyword in addition to the singular form when possible to capture more potential traffic.
AltaVista is believed to be case sensitive. If you are not already doing so, consider using upper, lower, and proper case versions of your most important Keywords to increase traffic.
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